Inkjet cartridges online in Canada?

January 9, 2006 10:03 AM

Any recommendations for where to purchase inkjet cartridges online? I'm preferably looking for somewhere in Canada, or will ship to Canada cheaply. I've never actually owned a inkjet before (I've only used lasers), so can someone also tell me if it's worth the savings to get a refilled or off-brand cartridge, or would I just be throwing my money away? I need ink for an ultra-cheap HP PSC 1315, and I'd rather not spend more than the printer cost in the first place.
posted by cgg to computers & internet (18 comments total)

As a fellow cheapskate, I have to urge you to bite the bullet and buy the approved HP product. Those "refilled" or off-brand cartridges tend to be more worn and prone to ink explosions and ruptures. Putting them in your device voids the warranty on it. Buying a combo-pack of both cartridges costs only $35.99 at Office Max - hardly "more than the printer cost." Which was, when I purchased that model, about $99.

Good luck.
posted by BigLankyBastard at 10:24 AM on January 9, 2006

I've had no problems with no-name refill cartridges (I have a Canon i950). I got mine from PacificInk. I'm in the US, but they ship to Canada.

I got one shipment where all the black cartridges were bad, but they replaced them quickly.
posted by justkevin at 10:30 AM on January 9, 2006

www.lasermonks.com
posted by availablelight at 10:33 AM on January 9, 2006

I've had no problems with no-name refill cartridges

Me neither.
posted by languagehat at 10:45 AM on January 9, 2006

Staples sells reconditioned ink cartridges in-store. I've bought them for a Canon printer and they worked fine.

I, too, would like a good online source that doesn't make vague statements about the cost of shipping to Canada.
posted by GuyZero at 11:01 AM on January 9, 2006

I've had good luck with the Office Depot brand, but bad luck with the OfficeMax brand. A little researched turned up Office Depot's brand is made by Nu-kote International. Maybe their site can help you find them in Canada.
posted by slogger at 11:02 AM on January 9, 2006

If you're printing color maps from google or something, the refills are probably fine. If you're printing color profiled art or photos on color profiled high end art paper, you'd probably better stick with the official stuff. If you end up printing the same image 5 times to get it right on $1/sheet paper, you've just blown any savings you would have realized.
posted by doctor_negative at 11:04 AM on January 9, 2006

I had terrible trouble with offbrand ink for a couple of Epson printers. I now have a Canon and it's been happy so far with a couple rounds of refills from inkgrabber.
posted by omnidrew at 11:06 AM on January 9, 2006

I guess I should have mentioned it's just for run of the mill printing on stock copy paper, no photos or anything fancy. I only paid $50 for this printer and bought it for its photo-copy abilities, but so far it's been good to me for the price.
posted by cgg at 11:20 AM on January 9, 2006

I always get mine from Media N More, though they have a limited selection. I can get a full set of all colours of ink for my Epson R200 for about $50 including shipping, and it works as well as the name brand ink. Another one I have used in the past is blankmedia.

One of the nice thinigs about Media N More is that if you ask the guy who runs it if he can get you something, he'll actually try and get it and let you know what price he can get before he orders it, so you can compare.
posted by synecdoche at 11:33 AM on January 9, 2006

Consider a continuous ink system.
posted by Chuckles at 11:53 AM on January 9, 2006

The office store web sites (Staples, Grand & Toy, Office Depot, etc.) have free shipping for orders over $50 (make sure you're on the Canadian site -- staples.ca, etc.)
posted by winston at 12:00 PM on January 9, 2006

I buy all my no-name ink cartridges on eBay.
posted by gfrobe at 12:25 PM on January 9, 2006

"Putting them in your device voids the warranty on it."

Just wanted to comment on this. In the US, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Improvement Act states that manufacturers are not allowed to require that consumers buy parts only from them in order to receive warranty service.

In other words, not only is your warranty still perfectly good and valid after using "compatable" or refilled cartridges, but the law actually prohibits printer manufacturers from voiding it because you used them.

(See this page on the FTC's site for a full explanation of the relevant law.)
posted by CrayDrygu at 3:14 PM on January 9, 2006

Woo! I love re-fill ink carts! I used to work for HP Printer Tech Support, and there was nothing like telling someone they were screwed when they called up and had ink all over the inside of their printer, and wanted us to tell them how to clean it out.

The key thing about HP Carts is there is a vacuum seal in there to prevent ink from leaking. HP Printers don't have Ink Heads, those are built into the cartridge, that's why they are so expensive. I havn't been in the industry in some time, but when I was, most other printers had the ink heads in the machine, which required cleaning every year, and if you didn't take it to a Authorized Service Center for that, you voided the warranty. With an HP Printer, you replace the Cart, you get a new Ink Head.

Thankfully for HP, it is indeed legal. That article specifies it.

'Although tie-in sales provisions generally are not allowed, you can include such a provision in your warranty if you can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the FTC that your product will not work properly without a specified item or service.'

All they have to prove is that a cartridge without a vacuum seal (re-filling of course breaks that seal) will not work properly in their machine. So, nice try on that one.

Also, the act only applies to something targeted for the home user, so HP could also argue in this specific case that they market the PSC for business uses. Probably wouldn't hold up well under a sensible judge though. Not sure what they are doing these days, but back when I worked there, they targetting the PSC/OfficeJet line for businesses and home based businesses.

More importantly, the HP Warranty for a printer doesn't even cover the the Ink Cartridge, even if it's their own, this is covered by a warranty on the Ink Cartridge itself. That warranty is voided if the cartridge is refilled or otherwise 'abused'. So, I'm sure they'd be happy to fix a huge ink spill inside a printer that was due to a defect in a store bought, non-refilled Ink Cartridge, under the Ink Cartridge Warranty.

Some people may think this is sneaky. But really, HP has no responsibility if you use Bob's Refilled Ink Cartridges and his Cartridge leaks all over the inside of the printer. That's a defect on Bob's Product, not theirs, and HP has no responsibility to fix that. Call Bob, and he'll probably tell you that you're screwed because he doesn't have a Tech Support Department.

This is all assuming you have a warranty and didn't buy it used.

Anyway, as you can see, I highly suggest using only HP brand Cartridges. Your choice though, really depends on what you expect from the life of the printer. If you want to make sure you have it for the next 5+ years and have no problems, buy the HP ones. If you'll be happy if you get a year or maybe two from it, and are willing to toss it out the window if you get a big ink spill, then go for re-filled.

As far as the life goes, it's quite possible you could get 10+ years out of it if you treat it well. My mother still has a 550C that is 12 years old and works like a champ. My 842C is 5 years old and has no issues. However, if you use the Copier/Scanner alot, you'll most likely wear the scanner bulb out long before 10 years, and it'll be cheaper to by another, newer, $50 clearance model then get a new bulb. The printer will still work fine with it burnt out though.
posted by Phynix at 2:15 AM on January 10, 2006

I need ink for an ultra-cheap HP PSC 1315, and I'd rather not spend more than the printer cost in the first place.

Here's how I look at it: You didn't buy a printer. You bought an inkjet cartridge supporter, with an inkjet cartridge pre-installed. The inkjet cartridge is the printer, more or less. Seriously, take a look at your printer. It's a plastic shell, a metal rod, a wire ribbon and a USB port - and a horrendously complicated little thingy that is an inkjet cartridge. So when you buy another inkjet cartridge, you're really buying another printer.
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:01 AM on January 10, 2006

Tests by Consumer Reports magazine favored the brand-name manufacturers.

"Page for page, off-brand inks yield little savings, despite their selling prices," Consumer Reports said in its May [2004] issue. "What's more, we found that off-brand inks have shortcomings that their brand-name counterparts do not: They are likely to yield lower-quality color photos and graphics, and they might clog the nozzles in the printhead."

And from another article (about the same testing):

Consumer Reports says none of the alternatives for HP printers are worth the money: the quality was too poor.
posted by WestCoaster at 10:41 AM on January 10, 2006

Ok, here is the lowdown on Inkjet Cartridges.

Firstly there are 3 main manufacturers that make printers with imbedded heads. (IE. The print head is in the printer) Brother, Canon, and Epson. The advantage of purchasing a printer with imbedded heads is that you can purchase OEM compatible cartridges on the open market for huge savings.

Manufacturers such as HP, Lexmark & Dell all use cartridges with heads. You can only purchase these cartridges as remanufactured/reconditioned cartridges from other than the manufacturer. The problem with these remans is that there is a limited lifespan of the heads as they are not manufactured to last for the life of the printer as they are in the printers with imbedded heads. The companies supplying these cartridges do purchase special machines to test and clean the cartridges (Hence the term reconditioned) but as they have been used previously, you can expect to see a higher failure rate than for a new cartridge. None the less most people I have talked to are more than happy with the performance of these cartridges. I have heard you can expect to refill these cartridges up to 7 times approximate, before you start seeing degradation in the print quality.

As for quality, most suppliers of these cartridges meets with current ISO 9001 manufacturing standards and offer unlimited satisfaction money back warranties/guarantees on their products that they will meet and or exceed the quality of the OEM cartridge manufacturers.

You'll also hear about pigmented inks and dye based inks. Typically Pigmented inks offer more vibrant color reproduction and are more tolerant to water/moisture. Again you'll find most NON OEM ink suppliers offer similar refill inks as do the OEM manufacturers. (Not all).

The most important aspect of purchasing non OEM cartridges is to

a) find a brand that you are happy with the quality. G&G is currently the largest supplier in North America to the best of my knowledge.

b) Find a supplier who stands behind their product.

c) And if you are like me, find a supplier who delivers quickly as I tend to order when I run out of ink.


How to find the best Canadian Suppliers at the lowest cost.

I simply search for Inkjet Canada via Google, and check out the prices and delivery of the top 10-20. (Note be wary of hidden shipping costs as they can make the difference between suppliers) . I stick to Canadian suppliers as the customs and duty fees charged by many of the shipping companies, in many cases, can exceed the cost of the cartridges. TO maximize my savings I always purchase enough to get " Free Shipping" from these suppliers.

I have been using a company called Metawatch for the past few years as they have distributors across Canada, and have always supplied me with Cartridges in 2-3 days from date of order (Even though they only promise 4-5). Never had a problem, and would recommend them to my best friend.

Special Note: Too bad you already purchased your printer. I have used Epson printers for the past 10 years and never had a problem. (Cheap cartridges as well)

Hope this helps...
posted by Kenno at 7:01 AM on January 25, 2006